Walk the rough hill pasture on the north-east-sloping hollow where it sits, and you will find nothing clearly legible, only overgrowth, scattered surface stones, and the unremarkable texture of old ground. The enclosure announces itself only from the air.

Two aerial photographs, taken in 1973 and 1975 as part of the Geological Survey of Ireland aerial photography programme, caught what is known as a shadow site, where buried or vanished structures leave a faint impression on the land through differential crop growth, soil moisture, or slight changes in surface relief. In those photographs, the circular outline of the enclosure is distinct enough to record and measure. On the ground, it has effectively disappeared. Enclosures of this type are a common feature of the Irish early medieval landscape, typically serving as the enclosing boundary of a farmstead or small settlement, defined originally by an earthen bank, a stone wall, or a combination of both. What survives at Carrigawannia is the ghost of that boundary. Close by, within roughly forty to seventy metres to the north-west and west-north-west, three separate hut sites have been recorded, suggesting that this hollow once held a small cluster of activity, people living and working within reach of one another across the hillside.